Meant for Bargaining
by idealskeptic
Summary: Mockingjay ended with a lot of people dying. But what if two people, two important people in the story, didn't die? What if Primrose and Finnick survived? What if they were carried away from the spots where they fell and brought back to health to be bargaining chips in Alma Coin's quest for total power? What happens when Coin is assassinated? This is that story.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a single letter contained herein.

**Author's Note: **I hope this story doesn't seem strange. See, I want an alternate ending where certain people don't die in _Mockingjay_. The end of that book is amazing and mind-numbing, but some people should get to live, right? So in this story, they do. I hope I created a logical, compelling reason why they do. I hope you want to read it. If you don't, that's just fine too. Best of luck finding something better suited to your tastes. If you do like this, please leave a review and say so. Sometimes it's nice to know I'm not the only crazy one… ;)

* * *

**Chapter One**

* * *

Primrose Everdeen jumped when the door to the room that had been her home for three months opened with a loud bang. She blinked back the tears of pain and tried not to show weakness to the gray clothed man who stood in the doorway. She knew him, because he'd come before, and he was as nice as she imagined he could be given his job but she hadn't seen him in days.

"I'm leaving, girl. Someone'll come for you soon enough. I've got some food for you. Make it last a few days." He bent and arranged two small-ish gray boxes in the corner of the room.

"Wait," she called out just before he left the room. "Wait. Why are you leaving? Who is coming? Is there medicine in the boxes? Are you putting food in the other room?"

He turned to face her, but it was clear he wasn't staying long. "I put food in the other room, yes. He's not going to survive, though, so you'd best just get used to that idea. Food won't make a difference. There's a little medicine in each box. As much as I could steal, anyway. I don't know who will come. And me? I'm going home. I'm done with this." He offered he what probably passed for a smile. "Good luck, girl."

He switched off the light and she heard the door click closed.

As much as she wanted to be like Katniss, to be strong and brave, she knew that even Katniss might allow herself a pity party just then. So Primrose threw one for herself. She cried until her eyes were dry and her chest hurt. It was easy to cry hard because curling herself into the ball that made a pity party that much better caused her physical pain. Burned skin down the left side of her body that had never been properly treated left her in pain any time she shifted her body too suddenly or in certain ways. But the pain was a reminder that she was alive.

With that in mind, she pulled herself out of the pity party and slid off her cot. There were tubes of soothing cream in one of the boxes, not many but enough. She spread a small amount all over her skin. She knew that the fact that it still hurt meant that it wasn't completely dead. If she could just get out of here, maybe she could get her skin treated and saved a little bit.

She sat on the floor and did an inventory of what her guard had a left her. She could make the food last for weeks, if she wanted to stay put for weeks and no one else came. But beneath some packets of dehydrated vegetables, she found something that completely surprised her. It was a small gun of some sort. She didn't know how to work it, but she knew what it was. The friendly guard wanted her to escape and to have a weapon when she did it. Or did it want her to be able to protect herself from whoever took his place?

She tucked the gun under her pillow and lay down.

Another thing Katniss taught her was that acting rashly would never succeed. She needed to think about this, to make sure that one guard saying he was leaving wasn't a trick. She would act in the morning.

xHGx

Finnick Odair groaned loudly as he pushed himself into a sitting position. He stopped with his back against the wall and waited for the world to stop spinning. When it had, he waited to make sure he wasn't going to vomit. That took a little longer, but he was just about to maneuver his legs off his cot when he heard a noise at the door.

He wasn't frightened by what was on the other side because he didn't see how things could get worse than they already were. So he sat and waited to see what would happen next.

"Finnick?" a soft voice called as the door opened just a little. "It's me, Primrose. Are you awake?"

"I am," he replied. "Are you alone?"

The girl slipped into his room and shut the door behind her. He blinked twice before he understood that she had a gun in her hands. "I'm alone," she said before he could ask. "The guard that usually brings me to take care of you left yesterday. He said he's not coming back. There's no one here today."

"He gave you a gun?" he asked, oddly not surprised by the idea that they had apparently been abandoned.

Primrose all but tossed it into his lap. "Yes. It was buried in a box beneath some vegetables. He either wants me to defend myself or escape. I'm not sure which."

Finnick sighed as he looked at the make of the gun. It wasn't Capitol made. It was District 13 issue. "See if there's one in my boxes of food?" He grimaced as his shoulder throbbed painfully and a strange, but familiar, odor seeped out from beneath the bandages wrapped around his upper body. "I heard him come in and leave the things but he didn't say anything to me."

She was already bent by his boxes and it didn't take her long to emerge with an identical weapon. "What does it mean, Finnick?"

"It means we've been abandoned," he said slowly, speaking his thoughts and trying to force himself to think clearly. "Whoever was holding us, they're not anymore."

"Why?"

He shook his head, and immediately regretted it when she hurried to his side and put the back of her hand on his forehead as the room swayed. "Well, because power has shifted," he said to force himself back into the moment. "That'd be my guess anyway. We're either not valuable enough to be worried about anymore or whoever decided we should be kept here, barely alive, is on the run."

Primrose nodded resolutely. "So we should run?"

Finnick laughed hollowly and shook his head just once. "You should. I'll only slow you down, considering I can't shake my head without getting sick. Take as much as you can carry and go."

She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. "No. We both go or we both stay."

He stared at her, wishing her words made logical sense. He wanted to go, but he knew her chances were better without him to slow her down. He couldn't walk far, he got sick easily, and he knew the infection from the muttation bite was still spreading through his body. But he wanted to see Annie again, even just once more.

"Finnick Odair, come back to me."

He sighed and focused on her instead of looking through her. "You should just go. Go get Katniss or someone to come back for me."

She shook her head and he knew he'd lost. "What if Katniss is with Annie?" she demanded. "Do you really expect me to stand there and tell her that I left you behind?"

"Maybe she's moved on," he offered lamely. He winced when she scoffed loudly. "Think about it, Primrose. Even if I do manage to make it out of here and back to wherever we need to go, I'm still sick. I could still die. Maybe it would be better for Annie if she just kept on thinking I was."

"And what if you don't? What if you don't die?" She crossed her right arm over her chest and took a deep breath. "I promised myself I wasn't going to tell you this, not when it looked like we'd never leave here and you were so sick, but things have changed and I can't live with myself if I don't tell you."

He met her gaze and moved his left hand to encourage her to clear her conscience. "Are you going to blackmail me into coming with you?"

"Maybe." She smiled shyly. "Do I need to? Will you hate me for it?"

"No, I won't hate you. And yes," he paused and closed his eyes against a spiral of wooziness, "you do need to blackmail me into going with you."

She squared her thin shoulders. "Annie's pregnant."

Finnick blinked.

When he didn't say anything, Primrose kept talking. "You and Katniss had been gone for a little while when she found out. It was just before Peeta was sent to your squad. He didn't tell you?"

"He knew?" When she nodded, he exhaled. "No, he didn't say anything."

She hadn't thought he would have. "He must've thought it would distract you. I'm not lying, though. I was there when my mother told her that she was pregnant." She reached out and squeezed his hand. "You have to get to her, don't you see? I don't care if it takes twice as long to get there, but you have to come with me."

He rubbed the heel of his hand against his eyes. "Alright, we'll go. Tonight, after the sun goes down."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a single word contained herein.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

* * *

Finnick didn't sleep during the day, even after Primrose gave him a pill that she said would help him go to sleep. He pretended, though, and lay very still while he watched her move around the room. She was packing as much food, medicine, and linen for bandages as she could into two small bags she found inside the boxes. He felt like he should be helping her, but he didn't think she'd let him. So he conserved his energy, as she'd put it, and tried to mentally psyche himself up for what needed to be done.

While he did that, he considered Primrose Everdeen.

Where Katniss Everdeen was bold and forceful, her sister was quiet and unassuming. That didn't make her any less strong, no matter how many times she told him it did.

A fourteen year old girl who survives second and third degree burns by treating them herself while being held in what could only be described as semi-comfortable captivity is strong by any definition of the word.

That she kept him alive too, when he'd specifically asked her not to… or so he thought, things were admittedly hazy from pain and infection, was just another testament to the fact that her character was as strong as her sister's.

She might not have survived in a Hunger Games arena because to survive you have to kill, but she was a survivor.

"Do I have to give you a second pill?" she said, appearing in front of him and touching his forehead with her right hand. "You should be sleeping."

"If you give me a second pill, will I be any good to you when we leave?"

She shook her head, relieved that he said _when we leave_. "No, you wouldn't be any good at all." She put a small opened can in front of him. "Here, eat this. If you get sick from it, you'll be recovered mostly by the time we leave."

He ate the disgusting food, something he was sure was a product of District 13 rather than of the Capitol. He was oddly proud of himself when he didn't immediately throw it right back up, especially when he saw how relieved Primrose seemed by it.

"Just a couple hours," he said, handing the can back to her and gesturing toward the window up high on the wall. It was obvious that the sun was setting but that was all they could see out the window. "Still time to change your mind."

She shook her head. "I'm not changing my mind, Finnick. Are you?"

"No. I have to find Annie. I can't let her go. That's why I'm still alive, I think."

"I think so too," she agreed. "After what happened to you, you must have an incredibly reason to be alive. What else could it be but Annie. And you know she needs you."

He held up his hand and laughed, feeling odd for doing it. "Enough with the blackmail, Everdeen. I'm coming."

She grinned and finished her own can of food. "Good. Now we'll take our medicine, put on our lotion and bandages, and go. Ready?"

xHGx

Primrose had watched carefully whenever the guard took her out of her room and led her to Finnick's room. She had memorized as much of the building they were in as she could, so she led the way out. The gun was in her hand, and Finnick had already shown her how to use it. She hoped she wouldn't have to, but that wouldn't stop her from getting out and going home.

They didn't meet another soul on the way out of the building and it seemed too good to be true.

"Any idea where we are?" she asked as they stepped into the fresh air. Looking around, all she saw were trees. They didn't really look like District 12 trees and they were sparse and scraggly, but that's all she knew.

"Near the edges of District 6, I think," he replied. "It's pretty much in between District 4 and District 12. We either go east, I think, or southeast. You pick."

She shook her head. "Best guess, are we closer to my district or yours? We should go toward whichever one is closer, unless you think we should just find the center of District 6."

"The thing we're closest to is, unless I'm losing my mind, the edges of District 12." He nodded, satisfied that his mind was clear enough to decide that. "It might be the woods where Katniss and her… Gale hunted, but that's what it'll be. This way."

Primrose followed him because she trusted him completely and she knew that, if the war was over, Katniss or Gale or even Rory would be in the woods. If they were still alive.

It was slow going, to put it mildly.

Finnick had to stop every ten minutes or so, and they spent ten minutes resting. The further they walked, the more she noticed the smell coming from the still open wounds where he'd been bit by the mutt. But he seemed steadier the more they walked, so she tried hard not to worry.

She knew he was worried about her. He kept reminding her to keep her skin covered as best she could and he used his good arm so that, combined with her own good arm, there were two capable hands reapplying her burn lotion.

And she was still on the verge of giving it all up for lost by the time dawn broke on the horizon. She'd been blinking back tears of pain and frustration for almost an hour. If Finnick noticed, he didn't say anything. The few times she'd glanced at him, she'd seen tears in his sea green eyes too. But something made them keep going.

Finnick reached out and caught Primrose's elbow. "Shh," he whispered, readying his gun.

She followed suit and listened carefully. She didn't hear anything. He shook his head twice when she started to ask him what he heard, wondering if he was hearing things. She stayed quiet, though. And then she heard something. He nodded once, telling her it was the same sound he originally heard.

She dropped to her knees, ignoring the searing pain, and twitched her tongue against the top of her mouth. "Buttercup?" she called out, wondering if she was imagining things now. How could Buttercup be alive and not in District 13?

But he was.

The cat Katniss hated so much streaked out of the bushes and into her open arms.

Tears streamed down her face as she cuddled him, and he seemed to know she'd drop him if he squirmed too much.

"Your cat?" Finnick said after a few minutes. "So we're in Twelve? Or maybe Thirteen?"

She turned at his voice and found him sitting on a fallen log, looking utterly exhausted. "Twelve, I think," she said over the sweet sound of Buttercup's purr. "I think this is near where the hovercrafts from Thirteen picked us up when Gale was leading us away from the fires. We're close, Finnick, and I know whoever's there will get Annie for you right away."

"So it's safe here?"

She nodded. She knew what he was really saying. "Yes, I think so. You're well hidden. Stay here. Buttercup will show me the way back and I'll send someone here for you."

"Be careful, Primrose," he warned her wearily. "We didn't come this far to screw it up now."

She got to her feet, the adrenaline still helping her to ignore the pain, and walked over to him. "Nothing is going to be screwed up, Finnick." She leaned down and kissed his cheek. "Don't move an inch."

He laughed twice. "Don't plan to, Miss Everdeen."

Satisfied that he was as a safe as he could be, she followed Buttercup into the woods. She went slowly, but stopped less, and was guided by the cat weaving carefully enough around her feet that she was never in danger of tripping. The cat led her to the lake.

Rory Hawthorne was fishing at the lake.

He dropped his pole in the lake and very nearly fell in when he saw her standing there.

Then he ran across the new spring grass and caught her in his arms. "Are you really here?" he said as he hugged her with all the strength he had. "You're supposed to be dead, Prim."

"I'm not dead, Rory," she half-laughed, half-cried. "You're okay?"

"Yeah, fine." He waved off her worries about him. "Come on, I'll take you to Katniss."

She pulled him to a stop. "She's okay?"

He looked uncomfortable but nodded. "She's in the Victor's Village. Come on."

Before she went, she described the place where she left Finnick so that Rory could send someone to get him as soon as they got back. She didn't want to forget, so telling him the details was suddenly most important. He promised he knew where it was, and that he'd go himself, and then he picked her up and carried her all the way back to the Victor's Village.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a single word contained herein.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

* * *

"Katniss is… she's, well… she's not really… okay," Rory explained as he cut across the road to the village. "I mean, she got burned too. She thought you died, so she kind of lost it completely. She doesn't really eat unless Greasy Sae and Haymitch make her do it. I don't think she's taken a bath since she got back here.

"I know you're not okay either, and I don't even know where you were, but I thought I should warn you." He looked sheepish and sorry, but relaxed a little when she kissed his cheek and told him not to worry so much and that she was glad he told her.

They ran into Haymitch first. Before he could ask her any questions about where she'd been or how she was still alive, Prim told him where Finnick was. She was fairly certain that the District 4 victor had kept fighting for her sake and she was suddenly very worried that he would give up when he was so close to freedom.

Haymitch gathered her into his arms, even though she insisted she could walk, and said he'd take her to Katniss. "You know the woods better," he told Rory. "Get Thom and Bristel or some other friends of your brother and go get him."

Rory didn't have to be told twice.

"Katniss is really bad?" Prim asked when Haymitch started walking toward her sister's house.

He grunted in answer but then elaborated. "Yeah, she is. She'll be better when she sees you alive, I think." He stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked down at her. "Am I hurting you? I've got your injured side up against my chest."

She grabbed his hand before he adjusted her. "No, it doesn't really hurt. Not any more than usual. Actually, it feels kind of good pressed up against the warmth of your body."

He laughed once. "Happy to help, then. Ready to see your sister?"

She suddenly wasn't sure that she was, but she nodded.

Haymitch carried her inside and set her on a sofa. "Stay here, I'll go get her."

Buttercup jumped up and settled onto the sofa next to her.

Prim looked around and tried to take stock of her surroundings. The house looked much the same, only not neat the way her mother would keep it. She realized then that neither Rory nor Haymitch had mentioned her mother. It'd sounded like it was Greasy Sae who cooked and cleaned for Katniss. That worried her very much.

Before she could panic, Katniss appeared in the door.

They stared at each other, with Haymitch keeping a restraining hand loosely on his tribute's elbow. Katniss whimpered, then turned and buried her face in his chest.

Prim started to cry.

Katniss heard it and pulled away from Haymitch. "She's real," she whispered. Then she ran across the room and wrapped her little sister in her arms.

xHGx

Finnick was hovering somewhere between sleep and lost consciousness when Rory Hawthorne, Thom, and another old friend of Gale's who made it to District 13 and back again arrived with a stretcher in hand. He didn't quite recognize them in the haze of his pain and illness, but Rory recited the lines of song that Prim had sung while she took care of him and he trusted them then.

They maneuvered him onto the stretcher and Rory led the way through the woods and back to the Victor's Village. All he saw and acknowledged as existing was the canopy of green leaves overhead. He wanted to keep his eyes open until he saw Annie, but he couldn't.

When he did open his eyes again, Haymitch Abernathy was hovering over him.

"Sorry to startle you, boy," the old man said gruffly. "Not the pretty face you want to wake up to?"

"Not so much, no," he laughed hoarsely. "Primrose?"

"She's fine, she's in the other room with Katniss. She's already been in to see you and changed your bandages and put medicine on you. Matter of fact, she sent Rory out to get some plants that she says will help more than the pills in your packs." He patted Finnick's good shoulder and sighed. "It's gonna be alright, boy."

Finnick blinked slowly, trying to clear his mind. "Annie?"

Haymitch stopped him from trying to sit up. "Relax, relax. She's not in District 12 so she's not here but she's on her way."

"Where is she?" he demanded, giving up the attempt to sit up far too easily for his liking.

"Four, she went back to Four. But don't worry, Johanna was there visiting her and Gale was in Four for something else. I called them both and they're going to bring her here."

He wasn't sure about Johanna being able to take care of Annie but he knew the options were limited, and he remembered that Annie had seemed calm enough around Gale. "Are they telling her?"

He shook his head. "No. We figured it'd be best to tell her Katniss and Peeta want to see her. She's strong, Finnick, just like you always told me. She's doing really good, all things considered."

"Help me sit up some?" He had to wait until Haymitch got permission from Prim, but he did get to sit up. "Primrose said, I think, that Annie's… pregnant?"

"Real." He shook his head. "Sorry, that's the answer I have to give when Peeta and Katniss ask me questions. Force of habit, I guess. But yeah, she is pregnant. Two reasons to recover, right?"

He agreed but inside he was terrified. Terrified of many things; Annie seeing the angry bite marks that covered one side of his body, seeing Annie again at all, seeing and accepting fully that he was going to be a father, and that he wouldn't survive anyway. That last one worried him most of all.

"Before you go back to sleep, sitting up," Haymitch said, interrupting his thoughts, "can I ask you something? Something that needs cleared up?"

Finnick nodded, wincing at just a small jolt of pain in his shoulder.

"Hawthorne, the oldest one, said he shot you, _coup de grace_ or whatnot, when the mutts were about to bite your head off. Doesn't look like you were shot."

"I don't know why he said that," he admitted, "but I wasn't shot. Maybe he was trying to make it easier on everyone. Doesn't Katniss know, though? She dropped the holo when I got buried by the mutts. That was the _coup de grace_, or it was supposed to be. I think the mutts' bodies protected me from the blast, even if it killed them."

He sighed heavily. "Katniss, and Peeta of course, are a bit hazy on some details. Or maybe he's hazier and she just won't tell me. One or the other."

"Ask Gale when he gets here, I suppose." He looked at the surprisingly sober seeming former victor. "I have a question for you. Who the hell was holding us? It looked like weapons and uniforms from 13, not the Capitol?"

"That's what I think too. Already contacted Paylor about it."

"Paylor?"

"New president. From Eight. Did it seem like maybe you and Prim were abandoned, maybe?" When Finnick nodded, Haymitch ground the heel of his hand into his eyes. "Well, that's probably because Coin was supposed to be president, you and Prim must have been meant for bargaining or something, but her reign only last a few days. Katniss assassinated her."

He blinked in disbelief. "Not Snow?"

Haymitch shrugged. "Snow died at the same time. Katniss' single arrow went through Coin. Maybe she assassinated both, I don't know. Anyway, we'll get it all sorted out in time. Get some rest now."

He didn't have to be told twice, and he didn't resist when he was helped to lay back down, only this time with a better pillow beneath his head.

He thought about this new, sort of frightening world that he found himself in. He wasn't a pawn anymore. He didn't have to be something he didn't want to be. He was free to live and breathe as he chose.

And he chose to live and breathe.

It was the only option in the grand scheme of things.

So he went to sleep and willed himself to be infinitesimally better when he woke up.

He dreamed of Annie, and of a baby.

For the first time in a very, very long time he wasn't afraid of his dreams.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a single word contained herein.

* * *

**Chapter Four**

* * *

Katniss was sitting beside him when he woke up again.

The way she was staring at him was probably what woke him up, he figured. It was intense.

"Shh," she said in lieu of a greeting. "Prim told me not to wake you up but I have to talk to you."

"Is she sleeping?" he whispered back.

She nodded. "Buttercup and Rory are with her. My mother is coming back with Annie and Johanna and… maybe she can do something for her burned skin. For you too, of course. You don't smell very good."

Finnick took a deep breath and laughed softly. "Neither do you, Katniss. Did they stop shipping soap to District 12?"

She scowled, but her features still somehow softened. "We're a sorry pair, aren't we?" She didn't let him answer before she continued. "I'm sorry I led you into what happened to you."

"You didn't lead me anywhere, Katniss," he sighed. "I was going anyway. I would have gone without you. We had the same goal. If anything, we went together."

She nodded once. "That's a better way of thinking about it. I feel horrible about what happened to everyone on our squad, but it was you that hurt that worst."

"Half of us were soldiers, signed up for war, and the other half were not stupid enough to not see what you and I were doing. It doesn't make their deaths any less meaningful, just like the tributes in the Games, but you can't internalize and blame yourself for every single one. As a mentor, I promise you that. Ask Haymitch."

That seemed to satisfy her a bit and she fell quiet again.

"How's Peeta?" Finnick asked, because the silence was unnerving at so long locked in a room. "How are you and Peeta?"

"Peeta's getting better, I think. I haven't seen him that much. He's only been home for a couple weeks. He stayed in the Capitol to… have his head fixed."

He shook his head over her derision at the idea. "What about you? Your head fixed?"

It was her turn to shake her head. "I'm supposed to talk to Dr. Aurelius on the phone, but I haven't as much as I'm supposed to. Did Haymitch tell you I killed Coin?"

"Yes, and I'm glad you did. I didn't like her. Too much like Snow." He deliberately didn't mention his theories about Prim's captors because that was Haymitch's job.

What he said made her happy and she smiled. "That's what I thought. She ordered bombs dropped on children in the Capitol. Then she made the living victors vote on a Hunger Games with children of the Capitol. I had to kill her."

"How'd the vote go?"

"Beetee, Peeta, and Annie voted against the Games. She said you would have. Enobaria, Johanna, Haymitch, and I voted for the Games."

"You voted for them so she'd give you the arrow to kill her with."

He could tell by the look on her face that the relief she felt at having someone understand exactly why she did what she did was startling, even to her.

"Haymitch understood," she admitted. "That's why he voted with me. But he's the only one who understands."

Finnick reached out with his good hand and grabbed hers, squeezing it tightly. "I understand, Katniss. I do."

xHGx

Katniss was sitting beside her when she woke up.

"You didn't sleep, did you?" she asked.

The older Everdeen shook her head. "I was watching you."

"I wasn't going anywhere," Prim pointed out.

She shook her head. "I didn't know that. I still don't really believe you're here."

Buttercup meowed loudly as she sat and wrapped her pain-free arm around her older sister. "I am here, Katniss, and I'm never going anywhere again. Even if it means I have to take care of you."

"I can take care of myself," she bristled.

She raised an eyebrow and twitched her nose, making it clear that she disagreed.

"I can, and I'm going to start," she hedged. "I have something to live for now, Prim. You."

"You should have been living for yourself all along, Katniss. That would have been living for me, living when you thought I didn't get the chance to live."

"You could both agree to live now, with each other and for each other."

Both girls twisted their heads to look at the doorway, where the words had come from.

"I mean it," Peeta said softly. "I don't understand why your first real conversation is an argument over who is going to take care of who and who has or had something to live for. Just hug each other and never let go."

He left again before either of them could say a word.

But he was right and they both knew it, so they hugged each other harder than they ever had before.

They only broke up when Haymitch arrived and knocked on the doorframe. "There's a doctor here. He's finished with Finnick already, but I want him to look over Prim." He moved quickly across the room and put his hand on Katniss' shoulder. "It's a Capitol doctor, sweetheart, but President Paylor sent him. He won't hurt your sister."

Katniss shook her head and reached for her sister. "No. No Capitol doctor is going to see her."

Haymitch caught her hand before it reached Prim. "Yes. Dr. Copernicus is going to look at her. You're not staying in the room. Anybody else can stay in the room, but not you."

"He's right, Katniss," Prim said softly, matching his firmness with gentleness so keep her sister in the middle. "I'll be alright. Peeta can stay in the room with me."

"Peeta?" She stopped in the middle of her protest. "Why Peeta?"

Prim didn't say that Haymitch needed to keep Katniss out of the room. She still told the truth, though. "Peeta loves me like a big brother would. He'll protect me. He won't let anyone hurt me."

Both Prim and Haymitch took it as a good sign that she agreed easily. On the way out of the room, with Haymitch's hand still on her shoulder, she offered Peeta her bow and arrow.

He seemed surprised that she spoke to him, and took the weapon. He tucked it behind the door as soon as she was gone. "I won't need that," he whispered, "but I wanted to make her feel better."

"You still love her," Prim said with absolute certainty.

"Yes, I do," he admitted. "I still have moments when I'm not completely sure, but I do love her. You're right too, though, I do love you like a little sister and I will always protect you."

She hugged him and then held his hand while Dr. Copernicus examined her damaged skin.

"It could be worse, of course," he said when he was finished, "but we can still treat it and reverse a large part of it, Miss Everdeen. You will still have some scars and damage to the deepest layers of the epidermis, because the injury is old, but things can be almost normal."

She waited patiently until he finished the technical explanation of the treatment. "I'm not going to the Capitol," she announced when he asked if she had any questions. "I'm not. I don't care what it means, I'm not going to the Capitol."

Peeta squeezed her hand. "Katniss would be proud of you," he whispered, "but let him finish."

The doctor nodded his thanks and cleared his throat. "You won't need to come to the Capitol, Miss Everdeen. President Paylor has authorized me to request whatever equipment and staff I need to treat you and Mr. Odair here in District 12. I'm staying here."

She held back a smile at how unsure he looked about the idea. "Does President Paylor plan to have a proper, permanent medical center set up here? With doctors and things?"

"Yes, that's also my assignment. Now, knowing some of what your injuries were, I did bring along some lotions and creams. Do you remember the girl from your sister's prep team, Octavia? I brought her with me as well. I'm going to have her set up a healing bath for you while I send my order for further things in. Octavia, and your sister, can certainly stay with you."

Katniss appeared behind him. "Octavia's here? We'll help Prim with her bath."

Dr. Copernicus nodded and hurried out of the room, obviously afraid of the final Hunger Games victor.

A little while later, Primrose was happily relaxed in a delicious smelling tub of hot water. Her burned skin tingled, but not painfully. It all reminded her that she was alive, really and truly. Even if she was never perfect again, she was alive.

That was enough.

More than enough.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a single word contained herein.

* * *

**Chapter Five**

* * *

Primrose snuck away from Katniss later that evening. She'd heard Haymitch leave the house, apparently taking a break from keeping an eye on Finnick, and she needed to see her former cellmate for herself. So while her sister was staring blankly but intently out the window, she slipped out of the room.

She was happy to see Finnick sitting up on the bed in the room across the hall from hers. "Feeling better?" she asked as she moved to sit beside him.

"Much, thank you." He smiled and shifted against the pillows. "Are you?"

She nodded. "The doctor is having some other things sent, but I already feel better. You look less… green. I like it."

"So do I," he agreed, laughing before he turned serious. "Do I smell better? Dr. Copernicus said what he put on should be helping the bites close until they can be drained."

Prim sniffed the air and smiled. "Much better. It's hardly there at all."

"Haymitch says Annie will be here in a little while. Do you think she's going to be afraid of me? What should I do? I don't want to hurt her."

It was easy to see how nervous he was and she leaned forward and hugged him with her uninjured arm. "You won't hurt her, Finnick. You'll only help her by being here and letting her see you."

"I don't look like I did before," he said glumly.

She took in the pallor of his skin, the bruising beneath his eyes, and the way his arm rested limply in his lap. He really didn't look like a Finnick Odair that anyone would recognize and she told him so. "But you don't want just anyone to recognize you. You want Annie to see you. She'll see you and she'll love you. I don't have any doubt about that."

He sighed and smiled. "How did you get so wise?"

"Born that way," she laughed, sticking her tongue out. "You're charming and I'm wise. We're both cursed to be blessed that way."

He winked at her, playing up a charm he hadn't used in a very long time. "Enough about me, let's talk about you."

"We already did," she protested.

He shook his head. "Not about Rory Hawthorne."

Prim blushed furiously. "What about Rory Hawthorne? Why would we talk about him?"

"Because you really like him and because it's obvious that he really likes you. Have you told him that you like him?"

Still blushing, she shook her head. "I'm disfigured now. He should find someone pretty."

"This from the girl who just told me Annie will love me no matter how I look and smell," he sighed, reaching out and squeezing her hand. "Maybe you're already the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, Primrose. Maybe he doesn't see your burns and your scars. Maybe he sees your heart and your soul. Maybe that's what he likes."

She blinked back tears and nodded. "Okay, Finnick, I won't push him away. Maybe it will be okay."

He sat up enough to kiss her cheek. "That's my girl."

xHGx

Finnick was nervous enough a few hours later that he threw up into a vase Haymitch grabbed when he realized what was about to happen.

"I haven't helped you puke since your first year mentoring," the older man mused as Finnick wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. "Look how far we've come."

He couldn't be bothered to glare at him.

"Do you need one of the pain pills Copernicus left?" He gestured at the bottle on the table when he noticed Finnick grimace.

"No. They give me a fuzzy head. I'll take one after I see Annie."

Haymitch put the one vase on the floor and pick up a second, just in case. "At least you'll be willing to take one after you see her. Speaking of, the Hawthorne boys went into to town to pick everybody up. Julia's coming back too, so I'll have to leave you in Johanna's capable hands and keep an eye on things."

Finnick shook his head. "Who's Julia and why does it sound like you actually care about someone?"

He called him a few choice names before he explained. "Katniss' mother, that's who Julia is and she's been working on starting a hospital in District 4. You know I have a soft spot for Everdeens, that's all."

Too nervous to argue, Finnick filed the information away for later. "Johanna can take care of Annie?"

"Mm-hmm. She's doing pretty well, all things considered. She splits her time between staying with Annie in Four and sleeping with Gale in Two. I don't think she's ever had it so good, having a real friend and a man with no strings attached."

It hurt to laugh, but it felt good too.

Rory and Vick returned just a few minutes later with the group from the train station. The Everdeens' mother went to them, Gale followed his brothers to their new house in the Victors Village, and Johanna came into the room where Finnick was.

"Holy shit," she murmured, clearly not having believed what she'd been told. "You really are alive." She held up her hand when he started to say something. "Annie! Get in here!"

Any protestations he meant to make about startling his wife were forgotten when she came into the room. She'd been beautiful the first time he saw her and he'd fallen more in love with her every time he looked at her, but this was different. This time he was free to love her however he wanted.

She stared at him just as long, one hand resting gently on her rounded belly. Then, as if it were perfectly normal, she walked across the room and sat down beside him on the bed. "I knew you weren't dead," she whispered softly. "I never told anyone, because I knew no one would believe me, but I knew."

He pushed himself up on one elbow and she met him halfway. They kissed, but only quickly. Then they just stared at each other, willing the other not to disappear.

Finnick didn't know how much time passed before he realized, again, that Annie was really and truly right in front of him. He dropped his eyes to her belly and saw that it was true. She was pregnant. He touched her swollen middle tentatively.

Annie brightened and laughed lightly as she put her hand over his. "Did you feel that? Your son kicked when you touched me. He likes you."

He blinked and tried to digest her words. "It's a boy? You know that?"

She shook her head. "Only Mrs. Everdeen has been a doctor for me and she says she can't tell for sure but I know. You're going to have a son, Finnick."

"We're going to have a son," he corrected her. He hadn't been sure until just then if he had something to live for, if he would survive, but he knew now that he would. "We're going to have a son, Annie."

Annie silently agreed and let go of his hand. She had other matters to attend to.

Before he could stop her, she pushed aside the side of his unbuttoned shirt that covered the bandages Dr. Copernicus had put over his wounds. With steady hands, she gently pulled the gauze and tape away.

He waited for her to recoil, to put her hands over her ears and close her eyes.

She never did. She only brushed her fingers over the jagged bite marks that lined his body. "Does it hurt?" she whispered softly. "It must hurt."

"It aches," he admitted truthfully. "It stopped hurting a while ago, thanks to Primrose I think. Doesn't it frighten you? Even just the smell of it?"

She leaned forward, moving her hand to support herself on the pillow beside his head. Only when her nose touched his and he couldn't look anywhere but into her sea green eyes did she answer his question. "You could never frighten me, Finnick. Ever. You'll always be the boy who fell in love with the broken girl. You picked me up and you put me back together. I'll do that for you now, if you'll let me."

He started to cry then, tears of relief and happiness and hope.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **I don't own a single word contained herein.

**This is it. **Thanks so much for reading along with me and letting me know what you thought of what I did. I hope I did Suzanne Collins' amazing creations justice.

* * *

**Chapter Six**

* * *

_~months later~_

Jack Odair was born on the day Primrose accepted a promise ring from Rory Hawthorne.

His parents named him Jack because the name means nothing more and nothing less than an ordinary sailor. Finnick and Annie wanted their son to have a chance to be ordinary, even if they already thought of him as extraordinary.

Annie hardly ever put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes in the days and weeks before her son was born. She was too busy watching her belly grow and her husband come back to life. She made sure he came back to life.

She made him do the exercises Prim and her mother, who Annie trusted far more than Dr. Copernicus, suggested even when he just wanted to sleep. She held his hand while she reluctantly let the Capitol doctor do skin and muscle regeneration procedures. She made sure he took his medicine, medicine she'd only accept from Dr. Copernicus if Prim or her mother was the go-between, and she held him when he wanted to give up.

He never really wanted to give up, though. Sometimes it just seemed too hard.

But he pushed through and he was the first person to hold his son. And he held his son in the arm that had been so badly damaged by the mutts.

xHGx

Primrose was the second person to hold little Jack Odair.

The scars left by the fire that almost killed her were faded almost as much as the ones that Katniss and Peeta wouldn't have erased from their skin. Prim never forgot that she was scared and it still hurt to move certain ways sometimes, but she was alive and that was the point of everything.

Every time she felt down or grimaced in pain, Rory appeared beside her and ran his fingers over her scars or helped stretch her still healing wounds. Sometimes he kissed her on her scars, or on her lips with Katniss and her mother weren't looking.

That's how she knew that scars didn't matter to him.

Back in District 13, before she left with the medics, he had told her that he loved her. He asked not to go, but she went. While she was locked in a room, she wanted to see her mother and her sister again but she also wanted to ask Rory's forgiveness for not listening to him.

He gave it when she accepted the promise ring and promised to marry him the very day she turned eighteen.

xHGx

"Thank you, Primrose," Finnick said as they stood together in the dying light of the day while Rory chopped wood and Katniss helped Annie bathe the baby. "Without you, I wouldn't be here today."

"Maybe," she agreed, "but I wouldn't be here either if I hadn't had someone to take care of so thank you, too."

He put his good arm around her. "Did you ever doubt we'd make it?"

She had, but she didn't say so. Instead, she laughed. "Never. After all, you're _the _Finnick Odair and I'm an Everdeen. How could we fail?"

He laughed along with her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Right you are, Everdeen, right you are. We can't fail. Not possible. Not anymore.

**The End**


End file.
